Helping hands are filling boxes — and meeting a need for students across Naperville School District 203.
A new Kid Booster Resource Center is getting started this school year at Connections Transition Services.
Kid Booster Resource Center provides supplies
“The Kid Booster Resource Center is really a dedicated, centralized resource hub filled with things for students, such as winter gear, personal care items, and some basic clothing that are really essential for kids, like T-shirts, sweatpants, sweatshirts, underwear,” said Wendy Goettsch, executive director of the Naperville Education Foundation.
Kid Booster Anonymous is an NEF program that supports students academically, emotionally or physically across District 203.
About a year ago, Kid Booster surveyed social workers, nurses and counselors in the district to see how students’ needs were being met.
“What we saw was that it was a little bit fragmented, a little bit inefficient, given there’s 23 buildings across our district and 16,000 students, which 17% are from low-income families,” Goettsch said. “So we thought, okay, if we could centralize this and take really the main things that we heard from our social workers, nurses, and counselors of what they needed the most, let’s start with that and just see if it will work.”
Students helping students
The community helped the center financially and donated supplies — then NEF just needed to find hands to do the work.
“We realized we had the best resource right in our own backyard, and that was Connections. So our special needs students at Connections are actually the ones who are receiving the items, they’re packing the items, they’re doing inventory. The best part of all of this is we’re beginning to see students helping other students. So it’s a real purposeful work experience for our Connections students,” Goettsch said.
At the start of the school year, Connections students learned the process and started packing orders.
“A lot of them are excited because it is such an authentic work experience,” said Rachel Hunt, a learning behavioral specialist at Connections. “So it feels like they’re working in retail, especially too with the different procedures, like using the iPad and the scanner to scan in and out different inventory.”
Learning vocational skills
The resource center is part of Connections’ vocational skills program.
“Even if our students aren’t interested in working in a warehouse or a retail setting like Kid Booster, all the related skills that they develop and that they work towards while working in here is just really great for them to continue to become more independent,” Hunt said.
Continued community support
Goettsch said the center has already delivered around 700 items to schools in the district and expects more to be placed as the winter months are approaching.
Wishlists for specifically requested items are available on the Kid Booster website. The program also accepts new clothing donations or funds to help purchase supplies.
“It’s exciting to see the student-helping-student aspect of it, and I’m hopeful that it will continue to grow with our community support.”
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